Overview
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said three people were killed in international waters in the latest strike, the 17th publicly announced since early September.
- Public tallies put fatalities from the maritime campaign at about 69 to 70, with most strikes near Venezuela and some in the eastern Pacific.
- The Senate rejected, 51–49, a resolution to require congressional authorization for direct action against Venezuela, leaving the White House policy in place.
- Officials maintain those targeted are 'narco-terrorists' and have described traffickers as unlawful combatants; reporting to Congress cited OLC legal advice for boat strikes but not for land operations.
- An Associated Press investigation identified several of the dead as low-level couriers and laborers and found the boats often carried Colombian cocaine toward Caribbean islands and Europe rather than fentanyl bound for the U.S.